Key to danger: Who else has a key to your house?

2013-04-29T13:05:40Z2013-04-30T03:28:05Z

(WMC-TV) - The key to your front or back door could be the key to danger. Would you ever knowingly put a lock on your house that a complete stranger can open? You may not know it, but you may have already done that.

"It just doesn't make sense when you buy a lock and someone else has a key to it, period," said locksmith Glen Peifer. "I would like to know that my key is the only one that fits the lock."

It is a danger most consumers do not consider.

When you buy a mass produced lock, the chances are very good that someone else has the key to your home.

"My mom always said you get what you pay for," said Ginger Watson, who was pleased with the price of a dead bolt lock she purchased at a big box retailer.

She was not so pleased when we told her a little known secret...

Lock expert Glen Peifer says most big box retailers only carry a limited number of different keys for each brand of locks they sell.

"I would say it would be very low. It would probably be under 10 or 20," said Peifer about the number of keys.

Take Schlage for example. The company manufactures 30,000 different keys.

A spokesperson for Schlage says they constantly rotate the thousands of key codes they ship to retailers.

But how often are retailers rotating their inventory?

At the Home Depot on Poplar Avenue, Action News 5's Anna Marie Hartman found seven Schlage deadbolts on the shelf. All seven had the same key.

Out of nine handle and deadbolt sets, there were only two different keys available, meaning every other customer would have matching locks on their doors.

The Action News 5 Investigators quickly found matching keys for several brands, including Defiant, Gate House, and Kwikset.

Finding a match to Ginger Watson's Gate House-brand lock was as simple as matching a serial number on her key. It only took about 10 seconds.

"Scary. Because someone could be helping me in the store, look at the number, 'Here you go ma'am'. Memorize it. Grab the same thing right quick or wait and just trail me home," said a shocked Watson.

Key manufacturers tout the convenience of matching keys to customers who want the lock on the front door to match the back door.

But safety experts say that convenience comes with a risk, in situations you may not have ever thought about!

Maybe a criminal would not go so far as to buy up a bunch of locks and try to find a key that matches yours. But think about how often you surrender your keys, i.e. the valet, the car wash.

And what about those membership cards on your key ring that need to be scanned? Have you ever just tossed your entire set of keys into a drive through window?